Correlation between atherosclerotic lesions of cystic and hepatic arteries and gallbladder disease

This postmortem study examined the hypothesis that degenerative lesions of the hepatic and cystic arteries contribute to acute and chronic gallbladder disease. In 201 unselected adult autopsies, atherosclerosis of the hepatic artery was found in 7.8%, and intimal fibrosis of the cystic artery in 12.4%. These incidences correlated with that of systemic atherosclerosis (p <0.01). Our findings suggest that some cases of acute cholecystitis may be caused by arterial thrombosis or atheroembolism. These vascular lesions may also precipitate ischemic acute cholecystitis in low blood flow states. On the other hand, there was no correlation between degenerative changes in the arterial hepatico-cystic network and chronic acalculous cholecystitis (p >0.05): it seems unlikely that hepatico-cystic vascular degeneration contributes to chronic gallbladder disease.